These days it’s probably easier to find hay in a needle stack than it is to find an original Shelby Cobra. However, this doesn’t mean they are impossible to find. Forty miles away from London in a small suburban British back yard, David Meyer unexpectedly came across the Cobra when he went to the owners house to purchase a couple of Lucas SQ8 fog lamps. When they went to retrieve the lamps from the backyard, David couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw this car and shared it with our friends at Barn Finds.

The owner is a retired design engineer for Ford. He has owned the Cobra for decades, though he doesn’t drive it as much these days. He stores her in a rural garden backyard shed and was nice enough to pull it out to show it to Meyer. The Cobra is a ’65-’67 as its mill is an FE block which is mated to a T10 transmission. According to the owner this is one of the few Cobras that came equipped with inboard disc brakes. She is a little worn but it is 100% complete and only needs minor TLC to get it looking brand new.

The AC Cobra (Shelby Cobra in USA) was a performance roadster with a body engineered by AC and a motor produced by Ford, and the combination put together by Carroll Shelby. AC designed the body with classic European roadster styling and designed its chassis to handle the windy curves of European roads. During initial production in 1961, it was originally equipped with a Bristol inline-6 engine, a motor based off of plans from a WWII era BMW.

By 1961 this motor was highly underpowered so AC turned to Carrol Shelby for help. Originally, Shelby contacted GM to ask if they could build the Cobra with Chevy mills but GM wasn’t interested. They were afraid it would hurt the ‘Vettes sales. Shelby turned to his friends at Ford who were more than happy to help as they were looking to have a roadster that could out run the Corvette. For 1962 to 1963 a Ford 289 Hi-po motor powered the Cobra. The Cobra proved to be a huge success in road racing, dominating anything mainland Europe could throw at it.

Sadly this Shelby Cobra is not for sale but its nice to see the original owner taking care of it. Perhaps one day he will restore it to its former glory and have it back out on the road.